Nicholson (2003) How to Motivate Your Problem People Harvard Business Review (Optional Course Pack)

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by Nigel Nicholson

VERYONDue east KNOWSouthward TChapeau good managers motivate with

the poweroftheirvision,the passion of their delivery, and the compelling logic of their reasoning. Add In the proper incentives, and people volition enthusiastically march off in the right direction. It s a great imhistoric period, promoted in stacks of idealistic leadership books. But something is seriously wrong with information technology: Such a strat- egy works with only a fraction of employees and a smaller fraction of managers. Why? For one thing, few executives are particularly gifted at rallying the troops. Exhorting most managers to become Nelson Mandelas or Winston Churchills imbues them with little more than a sense of guilt and inade- quacy. For another, all available show suggests that exter- nal incentives-be they pep talks, wads of greenbacks, or even the threat of unpleasant consequences - have limited impact. The people who might respond to such inducements are al- set upward and running. It south the other folks who are the prob- lem. And, as all managers know from painful experience, when it comes to managing people, the 80-xx rule applies: The almost intractable employees take up a disproportionate corporeality of 1 due south fourth dimension and free energy. So how do you get these people to follow your atomic number 82? How do yous get them energized and committed in such a way that they not only support your initiatives but carry them out? After 30 years of studying business organizations and ad- vising executives,

have concluded that these are precisely the wrong questions to ask. That southward because, every bit it tums out, you lot can t motivate these problem people: Only they themselves tin. Your job is to create the circumstances in which their inherent gotivation -the natural commitment and drive that

MOTIVATING PEOPLE JANUARY 2 iii

7

How to Motivate Your Problem People

most people have -

 is

 freed and channeled toward achiev- able goals. That approach requires an entirely different managerial mind-set Achieving this shift in perspective is anything but easy. But it's your best hope for getting thdue east most out of your difficult employees. And if you succeed, your task won't be prodding or coaxing these people; it wilfifty exist removing barriers - including, quite possibly, your own demotivating management style.

Familiar Problem

Let'due south look at a couple of situations that wil50 surely resonate with most managers. Beginning, consider the trouble facing Annette. (Though the cases in this article are existent, the names and identifying details take been changed.) She idue south a senior designer at a large publishing and graphic design business, with dotted-line responsibility for Colin, a project team member. Always something of a maverick, Colin notetheless hevery bit a practiced work history. But the team is feeling the heat because the visitor restructured it to reduce costs and speed turnaround times. And Colin's behavior is condign increasingly problematic, or and so Annette and  Dave, the project grandanager and Colin's other boss, southee it. Colin seemsouth to be shirking westork, and when he does complete assignments, he doesn't report back to his bosses. To Annette, Colin's behavior doesn't just reflect his inherent disregard for rules and procedures; information technology likewise signifies a reluctance to take on further assignments. After discussing the situation with Dave, Annette decides that she will be the ane to talk to Colin because she has the better relationship with him. Annette'due south strategy isouth to yardotivate Colinorthward by appealing to his sense of responsibility to the project squad. When she meets with him and tries to get him to take this line of reasoning, Colin agrees to do what Annette wants. Just she doesn't become the feeling that her argument has made any affect. In her opinion, Colin is in his comfort zone: He supports the other squad members, even helps them to solve their troublesouthward, only he does and then at the expense of  ful- filling his own responsibilities. Annette wonders whether Colin has get a misfit in the new structure and will have to leave. Perhaps she should give him a tbrmafifty warn- ing at his annual appraisal. Or maybe she should transfer him to a less demanding job, in efironct demoting him. Here'southward another case. Paolo works in Eastern Europe equally a country manager for an international property devel- oper. George, a chartered accountant with an MBA, is a direct report whose job

 is

 to sell plots of country and develop strategic alliances with local companies. George is fairly new to this position, having previously worked in a dorsum-

Nigel Nicholson is a professor of organizational beliefs and the manager of tbe Center for Organizational

 Inquiry

at

 London Business

 Scbool.

 He is tbe author of How

 Hard

wired

s

 Human Beliefs? (HBR, July-August

 1998).

function function overseeing customer accounts. Although George is pleasant and enthusiastic, his performance is subpar and shows no signs of improvement. In fact, George has nevertheless to sell a unmarried parcel of country. In his bargain- ings with potential partners, the garrulous George acts as though his bonhomie is all he needs to cut a deal. And the deals he does manage to make turn out to be ill con- sidered and costly. Because of these issues, Paolo meets with George sev- eral times to endeavour to become him to change his means. George answers with encouraging smiles, plausible excuses, and a commitment to Paolo that things will change, just noth- ing does. In the final analysis, Paolo decides, George is slippery and lazy. Despite his promises, George refuses to adopt a dissimilar negotiating style, and he evidently isn't prepared to practice the detailed enquiry necessary to appraise a bargain. Exasperated, Paolo decides to outcome George an ultimatum: Amend your game or become out. But firing George would be an expensive option; people with his background and skills are difficult to find in this office of the world. Poor Paolo. He can almost smell the failure similarly to re- sult from a confrontation. He'll keep to get reassur- ances from George, but will he ever go George to modify his ways and be accountable for his performance? Pcwr Annette. If only she could convince Colin to amend his attitude, she could hold on to a potentially valuable team member. But no affair how reasonable Annette'south argu- ment

is,

 will she be able to get Colin to behave differently?

The Mistakes Managers Brand

These two cases share some qualities that often bedevil executives in their attempts to motivate trouble people. For instance, Annette and Paolo believe that they only need the right sales pitch to turn effectually Colin and George. Each boss thlnks, If

can only get this person to heed, he'll see the logic of my position. This approach, something I call tell and sell,

is

 based on a profound fal- lacy many of united states buy into: Other people have the same thought processes we exercise, and, consequently, they

 bave

to have the good sense of what we're saying. Merely each of us has a unique profile of motivational drivers, values, and biases, and westwardeastward accept dissimilar ideas about what is reasonable. This frequent mismatch of per- ceptions leads to another common problem with mana- gerial attempts at motivation: the futile and prolonged game of tag, with a manager repeatedly trying to slap some motivation onto the trouble employee. The em- ployee either evades the dominate's attempts or, if tagged, quickly wriggles free. Think of Colin avoiding his bosses. Think of George and his elusive promises. Every manager

is

 familiar with the Sure, boss meetings that terminate with an apparent resolution but ultimately outcome in more of the same former problem and the person not changing one jot. 58

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